Eco-Tourism Exhibition Day

 

Eco-tourism students: Sebastian, Nicole, and Nadia

One of the majors on our campus is Eco-tourism. Chile is a very diverse land, having everything from the driest desert in the world to some of the biggest mountains in the world, to Patagonia, and hundreds of miles of beaches, ocean, and islands. I have one class of Eco-tourism students and they invited me to their native Chilean indian "exhibition" today. Basically, they had booths and you could visit each booth to learn about a different native indian tribe from Chile. They dressed up like some of the tribes, had native food and herbal drinks, etc. It was actually very interesting....I just wish I could have understood ALL of it, but my Spanish skills limited me a bit. Anyhow, the eco-tourism students learn all about their country so they can tell others about it, they learn English so they can guide English speaking tourists, they learn all kinds of outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, kayaking, horseback riding, etc so they can work for these types of tour companies. Today was their exhibition of their knowledge of their native culture. Have a look!

One of the tribe's dress....maybe this was just for special occasions.

Again - I think the outfit in the middle was just for special occasions.

This tree grows pine nuts - way bigger than the ones we eat in the US. And, they are really good! I tried one!